Gareth MacHale was fastest through stages 1 and 2 while Eamonn Boland was quickest on stage 3. Eugene Donnelly still has a small problem with his Fabia and is now 20s off the lead. Daniel Doherty dropped time in stage 2 when his Subaru sustained a puncture that dropped him from 5th to 15th.
When the cars reached Carndonagh service Gareth MacHale said. “It seemed slow in that last stage. I suppose the others will maybe know it better than me”. Tim McNulty said. “All going to plan”. Eugene Donnelly commented. “Derek (McGeehan) has worked it out from the data card that we have no water injection and a sensor is faulty in the gearbox, slowing the changes. A disastrous start”. Aaron MacHale told us. “That stage 3 was my best one so far, but the car is a bit stiff, bouncing, we will change the suspension here”. Glenn Allen has had a good run so far, as has Sean Devine.
Garry Jennings leads group N and is going to have the brake discs and pads changed here at service. Seamus Leonard’s tyres went completely off and he has now dropped behind Alastair Fisher in the GpN race. Shaun Gallagher is 4th GpN and he has had tyre troubles. Damien Tourish is 5th and he feels his Lancer engine is lapsing on to 3 cylinders at times. Donagh Kelly is up into the top 15 and he is 6th GpN despite being a bit cautious in his tyre choice. In the National category Manus Kelly was a little bit cautious on stage 3 to let Rodney Wilton into the lead by a second. Wesley Patterson is 3rd despite a worrying gearbox noise, he is going to change the box at service. Gary McPhillips is 4th National and still settling in while Maurice Moffett commented. “It’s a long way to go on this rally, I’m not going mad today”. Brian Brogan was held up behind Adrian Hetherington’s stage 2 accident. Apparently it wasn’t a big shunt but the steering of the green Mk2 is damaged. Adrian’s friend Frank Kelly said. “I’m sure his heart was broke to go out of the rally so early. It was on a 2 left into 4 right over gravel. I felt like I’d gone off myself I was so upset for him”. Robbie Peoples is till going but has a bad misfire in his Escort. Camillus Bradley retired his Escort with a broken oil pipe. David Bogie has retired the Metro. Something seemed to break in the gearbox when he was changing down into the square right junction at the end of S2. Further stories: Stanley Ballantine lost 5m with a stage 1 puncture. James McNulty has retired his Lancer with gearbox trouble. Daniel Doherty told us his puncture happened at the first square right in stage 2, he clipped a big stone. Callum Duffy damaged a rear wheel but got away with it in stage 3. Daniel McKenna is setting good times despite a slipping clutch in his Escort, he is going to try and change the unit here.
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